Deric Ritchey had been battling headaches and dizziness for a while, which culminated one day at work when he lost his vision.
He recalls heading to his truck outside to rest for a moment when his wife happened to call. As a registered nurse, Katie Ritchey was concerned and told her husband to go to the emergency room.
Once there and after several tests, our team at Mercy Health – Perrysburg Hospital diagnosed Deric (pictured above with his family)with a brain tumor.
“Five days later, I ended up having it removed,” Deric says of the 3-cemtimeter tumor. “When they removed it, they found that it had originated in my GE junction.”
From there, Deric was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer of the esophagus known as gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, which originates in the gastroesophageal, or GE, junction which is the area where the esophagus and stomach join.
This diagnosis started with surgery by Zubair Ahammad, DO, one of our neurosurgeons, who removed the tumor at Mercy Health – St. Vincent Medical Center. He was then given an extensive treatment plan at Mercy Health – Perrysburg Cancer Center as well as follow up Gamma Knife™ treatment.
Gamma Knife™ is an advanced form of radiation therapy and the standard of care to treat many forms of brain tumors as well as other neurological conditions.
The Gamma Knife™ isn’t actually a knife. No incisions are made. Instead, the “knife” refers to 192 individual beams of gamma rays converging into one focal point and precisely targeting the area of the brain that needs to be treated, minimizing damage to healthy tissue.
“I went in kind of nervous, but Dr. Patel calmed my nerves quite a bit,” Deric shares. “It was comfortable, isolated, quiet. You don’t feel much or hear anything. I didn’t feel any side effects. It was one and done and they got everything removed.”
Suketu Patel, MD, one of our radiation oncologists, noted that Gamma Knife is targeted to allow for precise treatment of tumors, saving other areas of the brain from potential radiation. He adds that Deric’s successful Gamma Knife treatment coupled with his positive reaction to the chemotherapy and immunotherapy led by Adnan Al-Khalili, MD, medical oncologist, has turned Deric’s story into a happy one.
“He had an MRI of the brain that showed everything was clear there, and he had a PET scan that showed a complete response to his metastatic disease to his systemic therapies,” Dr. Patel says. “He is in a class of patients that truly responded well to the treatment plan.”
A 38-year-old father of two young daughters, Deric shares that prior to undergoing treatment, he sought second opinions for his diagnosis and treatment plans to ensure that he was on the right path.
He notes that his research led him back to his hometown hospital and the treatment program outlined for him.
“The Mercy Health team helped us quite a bit and helped us through this,” he says. “We did our own research, we had second opinions, but we stayed close to home, and it all worked out great.”
Learn more about the cancer care and oncology services we provide at Mercy Health.
